Though not required, you may use a URITK page to gather your research for your final exam. The questions that you should address include:
What is the problem or issue?
There is a serious need for more students pursuing STEM careers. Even within the realm of STEM students, science and math scores need to be higher; the US is at the middle of the pack and needs to regain its status near the top.
Why is this issue important?
Many of the issues this generation is facing is rooted in science. If we do not have an innovative and educated population of students who are knowledgeable in STEM fields, we are in deep trouble.
Why This is Important
We have many great schools, excellent teachers, and successful students in America. But there are also troubling signs that, overall, our students should be doing better in math and science.
What is the historical roots of this problem? What has been tried in the past?
The United States has been falling behind in math and science fields for the last few decades. We used to be on top, but now we see that China and India are cranking out and STEM graduates annually, while the United States, if lucky, produces . Our math and science scores are falling in elementary, middle, and high schools, as well. Although this is an issue that has been identified over the past few decades, Obama is really trying to fix the issue with his recent campaign "Educate to Innovate" under his Race to the Top Fund.
"That gives you a sense of what's happening around the world. There is a hunger for knowledge, an insistence on excellence, a reverence for science and math and technology and learning. That used to be what we were about. That's what we're going to be about again." - President Obama [1]
What are the current approaches?
"Educate to Innovate" aims to engage more students in STEM fields, and provide these students with the necessary skills to excel.
Under the Race to the Top Initiative, which is a competition among US schools for funds, schools that demonstrate new, innovated ideas in the fields of mathematics and science will gain an edge.
* The Obama administration is really trying to tackle this issue from many different angles. The main goals of this campaign are to:
Increase STEM literacy so that all students can learn deeply and think critically in science, math, engineering, and technology.
Move American students from the middle of the pack to top in the next decade.
Expand STEM education and career opportunities for underrepresented groups, including women and girls.[2]
The federal government, with the help from many companies, non-profit organizations, foundations, and leading scientific and mathematics societies, are stepping in to help bring US students to the top of the pack in STEM fields. [3] (all information about affiliations are in this source)
Time Warner Cable's "Connect a Million Minds" Campaign -Time Warner Cable is joining with the Coalition for Science After School and FIRST Robotics (program inventor, Dean Kamen) will connect one million students with fun after-school activities, like robotics competitions.
Discovery Communications "Be the Future" Campaign - Discovery Communications, partnering with leading research universities and federal agencies, will provide free STEM educational content to more than 60,000 schools and 35 million students, will create STEM connect, a STEM resource for teachers, and will dedicate a commercial-free educational kids block on the Science Channel, and programming on the “grand challenges” of the 21st century such as their landmark Curiosity series.
Sesame Street's Early STEM Literacy Initiative - 7.5 million dollar investment! Partnering with PNC Bank, 20/26 episodes of the 40th season will feature STEM related topics (13 on science, 7 on mathematics). The Sesame workshop, partnering with PNC Bank, has also developed a new initiative for preschool children called Math Is Everywhere.
"National Lab Day" - "National Lab Day is a historic grassroots effort, online at nationallabday.org, to bring hands-on learning to 10 million students by upgrading science labs, supporting project-based learning, and building communities of support for STEM teachers.The effort is a partnership between science and engineering societies representing more than 2.5 million STEM professionals and almost 4 million educators, with strong financial support from the Hidary Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and industry partners.
Collectively, this partnership is committed to working with more than 10,000 teachers and 1 million students within a year, and 100,000 teachers and 10 million students over the next four years."
National STEM Game Design Competitions - The MacArthur Foundation and Sony are launching nationwide challenges to design compelling, freely available, science-related video games. "One of the competitions will be open only to children, to help them develop 21st century knowledge and skills through the challenge of game design."
"These efforts extend beyond the classroom. Time Warner Cable is joining with the Coalition for Science After School and FIRST Robotics -- the program created by inventor Dean Kamen, which gave us the "Cougar Cannon" -- to connect one million students with fun after-school activities, like robotics competitions. The MacArthur Foundation and industry leaders like Sony are launching a nationwide challenge to design compelling, freely available, science-related video games. And organizations representing teachers, scientists, mathematicians, and engineers -- joined by volunteers in the community -- are participating in a grassroots effort called "National Lab Day" to reach 10 million young people with hands-on learning." - Obama
So really, the "Educate to Innovate" Campaign is trying to tackle to issues from many different angles (through the media, interactive games and experiments, after-school programs, competitions, and through new methods of classroom learning. Starting with pre-school ages (Sesame Street), encouraging after-school programs, interesting competitions, and even interactive video games. Everyone, children, parents, and educators, all need to step up in order for this campaign to truly be effective.
Even Sesame Street has joined in on the campaign and is featuring STEM topics in twenty of the twenty six episodes. These ideas are really trying to instill a sense of enthusiasm about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics starting in young childhood.
Obama is even hosting events at his house to encourage young people to work hard in STEM fields. Recently, he held "The administration is participating as well. We've already had a number of science-focused events with young people at the White House, including Astronomy Night a few weeks ago. The National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy, under the leadership of a terrific scientist, Steven Chu, have launched an innovative -- an initiative to inspire tens of thousands of students to pursue careers in clean energy." Obama [4] "And today, I'm announcing that we're going to have an annual science fair at the White House with the winners of national competitions in science and technology. If you win the NCAA championship, you come to the White House. Well, if you're a young person and you've produced the best experiment or design, the best hardware or software, you ought to be recognized for that achievement, too. Scientists and engineers ought to stand side by side with athletes and entertainers as role models, and here at the White House we're going to lead by example. We're going to show young people how cool science can be"
In October, Obama spoke at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology addressing the issue of clean-energy, in hopes of jump-starting the progress on "on redefining the government's role in the energy sector and Washington's leadership position in the global race for clean energy competitiveness."[5]
"Through his support for clean energy science, technology, and innovation, the energy focus of the stimulus package, and critically important enhanced support for energy research and development, the President has expanded our energy vision and is focused on creating the conditions for energy innovation to flourish across the country — at a faster pace, at large scale," said Ernie Moniz, MITEI (Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative) Director.
"At MIT, we share President Obama's conviction that clean energy is the defining challenge of this century — and we share his vision that America can return to economic growth, create jobs and mitigate climate change by investing in clean energy research," she said. "That the President has come to MIT to make a major statement about America's potential to lead in clean energy stands as a tribute to MIT's faculty and students, who are working together through the MIT Energy Initiative to invent a sustainable energy future."
How does this problem/issue relate to RI Schools? Is there evidence of a connection to the schools/districts/communities that we researched earlier?
"And through the Race to the Top, states won't just be receiving funding, they'll have to compete for funding. And in this competition, producing the most innovative programs in math and science will be an advantage. In addition, we are challenging states to improve achievement by raising standards, using data to better inform decisions, and taking new approaches to turn around struggling schools. And because a great teacher is the single most important factor in a great education, we're asking states to focus on teacher effectiveness and to make it possible for professionals -- like many of the people in this room -- to bring their experience and enthusiasm into the classroom." Obama on how Race to the Top Funds are granted.
What are your views, opinions, concerns, solutions related to the problem?
- What is the problem or issue?
- There is a serious need for more students pursuing STEM careers. Even within the realm of STEM students, science and math scores need to be higher; the US is at the middle of the pack and needs to regain its status near the top.
- Why is this issue important?
- Many of the issues this generation is facing is rooted in science. If we do not have an innovative and educated population of students who are knowledgeable in STEM fields, we are in deep trouble.
We have many great schools, excellent teachers, and successful students in America. But there are also troubling signs that, overall, our students should be doing better in math and science.Why This is Important